{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-blog-post-jsx","path":"/content/posts/from-chemical-to-frontend","webpackCompilationHash":"0fb77888eafce0e19778","result":{"data":{"markdownRemark":{"frontmatter":{"title":"From Chemical Engineer to Front-End Developer"},"html":"<p><span\n      class=\"gatsby-resp-image-wrapper\"\n      style=\"position: relative; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;  max-width: 590px;\"\n    >\n      <a\n    class=\"gatsby-resp-image-link\"\n    href=\"/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/de188/change.jpg\"\n    style=\"display: block\"\n    target=\"_blank\"\n    rel=\"noopener\"\n  >\n    <span\n    class=\"gatsby-resp-image-background-image\"\n    style=\"padding-bottom: 54.11826821541711%; position: relative; bottom: 0; left: 0; background-image: url('data:image/jpeg;base64,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'); background-size: cover; display: block;\"\n  ></span>\n  <img\n        class=\"gatsby-resp-image-image\"\n        alt=\"change\"\n        title=\"change\"\n        src=\"/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/c739e/change.jpg\"\n        srcset=\"/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/8ee9c/change.jpg 148w,\n/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/ebbe7/change.jpg 295w,\n/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/c739e/change.jpg 590w,\n/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/5413e/change.jpg 885w,\n/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/4efde/change.jpg 1180w,\n/static/15ec93e4460d531db1170705bb614160/de188/change.jpg 3788w\"\n        sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\"\n      />\n  </a>\n    </span></p>\n<p>Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Three years ago, I started learning to code as a hobby, far from knowing that\nI would end up becoming a front-end developer. Last year, I went more in\ndepth, and I dedicated 100% of my time doing a course about front-end and UX\ndesign.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<h2>Where It Began</h2>\n<p>After nine years and two jobs, one as a chemistry analysis technician, the other\nas a chemical engineer, I decided to change my career. Along the way, I worked\nin and out of Portugal, specifically in Germany, where I had the opportunity to\nwork with top technologies and evolve not only professionally but as a person.\nWhen I decided to change my career, I faced many challenges — quitting a stable\njob, going for the unknown, learning a new language and culture, starting a\nfamily — and all of this happened at the same time. While working in Germany,\neven with a challenging job, I felt my duty fulfilled with all this experience.\nMeanwhile, I was getting into the programming world, first as a hobby, but it\nawoke an insatiable interest.</p>\n<p>I always wanted more, and now I knew that programming was the perfect match.</p>\n<h2>The Transition From Chemistry to the Front End</h2>\n<p>In my last year as a chemical engineer, I enrolled in some courses related to\nfront-end development and built some small projects for friends. After some\ntime, I joined the Treehouse learning platform and started to take it more\nseriously. I invested some money and spent much of my free time learning. I\nfollowed what I used to call the normal path for people from other areas of\nexpertise. I started learning HTML, CSS, Basic JavaScript, and jQuery. Along the\nway, I found someone called Chris Sean who was giving the same steps that I was\ndoing. Seeing someone from another background who succeeded was inspiring. I\nalso had the luck to find a mentor to guide me. It was crucial to have guidance\nfrom someone inside the industry and, coincidentally, another person without an\nIT background.</p>\n<h2>My Difficulties While Learning</h2>\n<p>Hindrances are inevitable, but my biggest\nobstacles were focusing on one subject at the time, dealing with frustration,\nand finding an exciting project to contribute.</p>\n<p>Even working as a front-end developer, I’m still learning, and I will keep\nlearning during my entire career, and that was one of the reasons I decided to\nchange.</p>\n<h2>What I Learned From This Journey</h2>\n<p>Be in the right places! Networking is the\nbest way to enter this world and meet the right people at the right time at the\nright place. It didn’t take me three months to learn something valuable and get\na job; it took almost three years, and I still feel like I’m at the starting\npoint. Learning code can be very frustrating, but even so, never give up. The\ntech industry has a massive community, so you will always find someone who will\nhelp you get over some barriers. Working surrounded by people who are always\navailable to teach something new makes me learn a lot, be more humble.\nWillingness to give back to the community is contagious. Knowledge is the best\ngift you can receive and offer. Besides that, I had lucky to find a mentor who\nguided me throughout the last year. It was essential to have guidance from\ninside the industry.</p>\n<p>Thank you for reading this.</p>"}},"pageContext":{"isCreatedByStatefulCreatePages":false,"pathSlug":"/content/posts/from-chemical-to-frontend","previous":{"frontmatter":{"path":"/content/posts/9-weeks-plan"}},"next":{"frontmatter":{"path":"/content/posts/vim-is-not-a-monster"}}}}}